Proving defendant was wheel man no easy task

When attorney Stephen T. Jeffco asked the state’s star witness in its case against a Rochester man accused in a hit-and-run accident if he ever thought the accused, Leslie Pollard, was covering for his wife when he said he was behind the wheel the night of the accident, the noted Seacoast defense counsel may have tipped his hand as to his chief strategy, according to another longtime Seacoast defense lawyer.

Stuart Dedopoulos, of Bamford, Dedopoulos & Regan of Durham, N.H., said earlier this week that if the case goes to trial Strafford County prosecutors will have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it was Leslie Pollard driving the car, not his wife, Karen Pollard, a highly paid Director of Economic Development and deputy City Manager for the City of Rochester.

Leslie and Karen Pollard at his probable cause hearing in Rochester District Court earlier this month. (Lebanon Voice)

“The argument may be that he admitted he was driving, because he was taking the rap for his wife, who has a well-paying job and who had also been drinking (that night),” said Dedopoulos earlier this week. “Remember they have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Dedopoulos added that Jeffco is a seasoned, sophisticated defense attorney and knows that there are only so many things the state can do to try to put Leslie Pollard behind the wheel, such as Leslie Pollard’s own statements and the statements of the arresting officer, former Rochester Police Officer Eric Krans. Krans said at a probable cause hearing earlier this month that Leslie Pollard emotionally confessed at the booking table at the Rochester Police station that he had hit a person on his and his wife’s return home from an evening of drinking at the downtown Club Victoire.

The details of the case become even more volatile for lawyers on both side when police affidavits put the Pollards, the woman hit and two of the Pollards’ friends all together at the club the night of the crash. The victim suffered a broken collarbone.

Leslie Pollard, 51, of 17 Hemlock St., Rochester, has been charged with felony conduct after an accident and misdemeanor drunken driving in the case. His wife has never been charged.

The victim, a 28-year-old Rochester woman, was struck as she walked along Lowell Street near the Revolution Church after the car she was riding in with the two friends broke down and she got out of the car saying she wanted to go home, according to police affidavits.

Leslie Pollard, who left the club with his wife a short time after the other three, told police he thought he may have hit “an animal or ice” in the vicinity of the church, but didn’t want to stop because he was so close to home. He is said to have told a family member to go check the area and his wife to call the police soon after he arrived home.

Dedopoulos, who trained with famed and now-retired New Hampshire defense attorney Alfred Catalfo, said while the state may have a hard time proving it was Leslie Pollard and not his wife behind the wheel, it will have a much easier time getting an indictment from a Strafford County grand jury.

He said a grand jury can number anywhere from 12-23 jurors and a simple majority vote can result in an indictment being issued. He also said no defense attorney is present as prosecutors normally present their case, often with perhaps just one state witness. He said a grand jury might have 50 cases to get through so brevity often prevails.

He said the bar in both probable cause hearings and indictments is much lower regarding how much evidence is required, adding that a probable cause hearing basically is just acknowledging that a felony is likely to have been committed and the case should be bound over to Superior Court.

As far as an indictment, the bar is just as low.

“The old saying is ‘You can indict a ham sandwich,’” he said. “But you might not want to try it.”
Dedopoulos practiced with the Alfred Catalfo law firm from 1977-81 and later saw over the expansion of the public defender office in Dover to cover much of the Seacoast. He moved to his current practice in 1985.

A likely indictment on Leslie Pollard could come as early as next week or the Strafford County attorneys can put if off for up to 90 days, said Dedopoulos, whose biggest claim to fame could be his defense of Jeffrey Dingman, who was barely 14 when he and his older brother killed their parents in their Rochester home in the 1990s. Jeffrey Dingman was paroled in December.